The Morecambe Bay Podcast

Fresh from conquering the small screen could Morecambe Bay be about to become a name on the big one? Plans for the area to host a film festival are being drawn up with organisers saying they've already received 300 short films from producers based in 43 countries for the inaugural Bay International Film Festival which will be held at the end of October. As well as helping film students from Lancas...

Plans for Morecambe Bay to host a film festival are being drawn up with organisers confident the event will lead to celluloid success for the area. Already 300 short films from producers based in 43 countries have been submitted for The Bay Film Festival which will be held at the end of October. Students from Lancaster University are involved in curating the films and it's hoped the event will be...

Morecambe is about to become a regular feature on TV as the hit crime drama The Bay returns to ITV. Set in the town, its creator Daragh Carville is based in Lancaster and in an earlier edition of the Morecambe Bay Podcast explained where the idea came from together with the challenges of becoming a successful drama writer. In this edition we hear from actor Daniel Ryan who plays DI Tony Manning in...

ITV's hit drama series The Bay, based in Morecambe, returns to our screens next week. It's the fourth series of the production created by Lancaster-based writer Daragh Carville. You can hear him discuss the programme in an earlier edition of the Morecambe Bay Podcast. DI Tony Manning is played by actor Daniel Ryan who explains how his association with Morecambe has made a lasting impression. &nbsp...

Do you remember the early days of The Bay, the radio station that served Morecambe Bay from 1993? Enjoy some memories from presenters Mike Shaft and Trevor Thomas 30 years on! 

The Bay arrived on the area's airwaves 30 years ago this month. The radio station was the first to cover the whole Morecambe Bay area and it built an audience - and a reputation for creativity - to equal far bigger and longer established stations. Since 1993 the radio landscape has changed and while The Bay no longer exists, many people have fond memories of those early days. In this edition we he...

The bore - the surge of water that dramatically sweeps up the River Kent close to Arnside as a high tide comes in - is a dramatic sight from land. It's one of around twenty tidal bores that occur in the UK and surfer Ben Rogers plans to to ride as many as he can! The Arnside bore was his latest challenge, no mean feat as home is several hundred miles away in Bristol. Yet the appeal of this and oth...

The Bay is changing constantly. Twice a day tides race in but a research project now underway is considering how the landscape, community and birdlife are affected by a changing environment. And any of us who live and look at the area may hold the key to identifying changes. Geographer Dr Catherine Oliver from Lancaster University is asking for anyone - walkers, community groups, organisations, ch...

A piece of industrial history has emerged from the shifting sands of Morecambe Bay.  Some say a jetty used by ships transporting cargo in the 18th century is now more exposed now then at any time in 150 years. The River Keer has scoured away millions of tons of sand and grass to reveal the stone and wooden structure at Hest Bank near Morecambe. It was used when the nearby canal was the quicke...

The Bay is home to some amazing beaches and landscapes but did you know the area has two nationally important sand dunes that are home to 72 species? From orchids and insects to ground nesting birds and over a quarter of the UK’s natterjack toad population, these areas have an important role to play in the Bay's ecosystem. You can read more about the dunes here and take part in a free online webin...

The Bay is home to some amazing beaches and landscapes but did you know the area also has nationally important sand dunes? From orchids and insects to ground nesting birds and over a quarter of the UK’s natterjack toad population, these areas have an important role to play in the Bay's ecosystem. As Holly Stainton explains, there's a need for careful management of the shifting sands. So what's bee...

For Matthew, Morecambe and Wise is a big part of his life. His Twitter feed is a daily ray of sunshine: the Morecambe and Wise Archive (@eric_ernie_col) is a treasure trove of pictures, posters and video of Eric and Ernie at their best. But as you'll hear, he has managed to gather a collection of memorabilia that even Eric's family have been keen to see as well as bringing the magic of Morecambe a...

For fans of Morecambe and Wise Matthew’s daily Twitter feed is a ray of sunshine! The Morecambe and Wise Archive (@eric_ernie_col) is a treasure trove of pictures, posters and video of Eric and Ernie at their best. But as you'll hear in a podcast coming soon, he has managed to gather a collection of memorabilia that even Eric's family have been keen to see. #StillBringingSunshine

A team from Morecambe Bay have made sure some Christmas cheer will be enjoyed by families living in eastern Europe. Over 8,500 carefully wrapped shoe boxes containing gifts donated by people living around Morecambe Bay and across Cumbria have been delivered to communities in Romania by the Boxes of Hope charity. This year the group also crossed into Ukraine to spread goodwill among the country's e...

Over 8,500 carefully wrapped shoe boxes containing welcome gifts donated by people living around Morecambe Bay and across Cumbria have already brought Christmas cheer to families living in eastern Europe. As well as Hungary a team from the Boxes of Hope charity also visited communities in Ukraine. Jayne Moorby was among the team who managed to overcome geographical difficulties to ensure the gifts...

Volunteering to keep the beaches of the Bay litter free may well seem to be a never ending job but for those who lead it and the many volunteers who willingly give their time, the results make it well worthwhile.  Diane Sammons is a volunteer who has set up her own clean-up group, the Tideliners, who keep an eye on the beaches close to where the River Keer meets the Bay near Warton. As Diane...

34 tonnes of litter: that's the staggering amount cleared up from the beaches of Morecambe Bay by volunteers over the last two years. 2,790 kilometres of footpaths and trails have been cleaned yet the tides keep bringing in more rubbish to be cleared away. It may well seem to be a never ending job but for those who lead it and the many volunteers who willingly give their time, the results make it...

In the first weekend of December an event billed as 'more than a festive market' took place in the West End of Morecambe. And while there were stalls, food and music it's all part of a much wider story. The area is home to a growing creative community, one which has already successfully attracted diverse skills and nurtured artistic ambitions throughout the area. A disused department store could s...

A canyon that would stretch from London to New York, an extinct volcano three times the size of Mt Everest: two awe inspiring facts about 'the red planet' Mars. The Winter Gardens in Morecambe is hosting artist Luke Jerram's astonishing creation, a seven metre diameter artwork which uses NASA imagery to capture the planet in forensic detail. Each centimetre of the internally lit sculpture represen...

It's known as 'the red planet' but how much do we really understand about Mars? Maybe visitors leaving the Winter Gardens know a little more after seeing artist Luke Jerram 's astonishing creation. NASA images have been used to depict the planet which is hanging inside the main theatre area until 28th November. I was lucky enough to be given a guided tour by Stuart Atkinson, a mars amateur astrono...

They're the family where Christmas must be a major operation, months in the planning. The Radford family from Morecambe - all 22 of them - have become nationally known thanks to the Channel 5 series '22 Kids and Counting' that has charted their lives in recent years. Today the latest chapter was recorded: Sue and Noel's bakery in Heysham has been rebranded with queues forming to take up their kind...

Winston Churchill described 1942 as ‘The Hinge of Fate’: a year in which the Allies could have lost or won the Second World War.  An exhibition at City Museum in Lancaster details not only how soldiers from the King’s Own Royal Regiment faced death and hardship on active service but also what life was like on the Home Front. As I found out, there are parallels drawn with more recent times too...

Two sisters who played a vital part in cracking German code and intercepting radio traffic during the Second World War have been talking about their remarkable lives. Patricia and Jean Owtram were brought up in Dolphinholme near Lancaster. After their family took in two Austrian Jewish refugees the pair quickly become fluent in German, something which was to change their lives forever. When war br...

The remarkable story of how two sisters played a vital part in cracking German code and intercepting radio traffic during the Second World War has been shared in Lancashire tonight. Patricia and Jean Owtram were brought up in the county. After their family took in two Austrian Jewish refugees quickly become fluent in German, something which changed their lives forever. Their remarkable story has b...

Sian Phillips is well known in musical circles around the Bay and beyond: she's a leading light and has inspired many to take up music. Her brother was Dom Phillips, a journalist and one of two men murdered earlier this year while researching the deforestation of the Amazon. After a grim search up and down the winding Itaquaí river of the Javari Valley, Brazilian police confirmed in June that Dom...